This invention relates to devices for marking a position on a vehicular traffic area such as a road, runway or other designated area in which vehicles having lights are permitted to travel. In particular, the invention relates to a reflective marker made from recyclable material such as used rubber tires. Devices according to this invention may be used as reflective markers on highways, such as to designate lanes and shoulders, for example.
Reflective markers for use on roadways have been in existence for some time. Such devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,875,798 to May; 3,972,586 to Arnott; and 4,232,979 and 4,340,319 to Johnson et al. Generally, the devices disclosed in these patents employ a two-piece construction including a body and a reflective member secured to the body. Typically, the body and the reflective member are made from different materials having different physical properties including different coefficients of heat expansion and different degrees of elasticity and resilience.
Other reflective markers such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,332,327 to Heenan; 5,002,424, 3,784,279, and 3,627,403 to Hedgewick; and 4,726,706 to Attar describe devices in which a reflector portion acts as a housing for receiving potting material to form a base. The reflector portion and base portion are therefore also made of different materials having different physical properties.
In most cases, the materials used to form the body and the reflective member are usually hard materials having little elasticity and resilience. Such material is prone to cracking due to constant heat cycling due to temperature differences between day and night and cracking due to mechanical stresses imposed by vehicular traffic driving over the device. Consequently, such devices must be replaced from time to time. Replacement of reflective markers is presently quite costly as the entire marker must be removed from the road surface and replaced with a new one. Therefore, there is a need to provide reflective markers better able to withstand the physical demands of heat expansion and contraction and physical stresses to due vehicular traffic and preferably such markers are easily serviceable to permit replacement of the reflecting portion thereof.
Notwithstanding the above, each of the devices described in the above patents, is produced by processing raw or prepared materials specifically designed and formed into shapes determined by their designers. For example Heenan '622 discloses the use of an acrylic reflector member and a body formed from liquid urethane resin which cures in the plastic reflector housing. Both the acrylic reflector and the urethane resin are created from raw materials and once created can only be disposed of by burning. With society's increasing desire to depart from the use of non-recyclable materials, use of the Heenan reflectors is becoming undesirable. There is, therefore, a demand for devices which perform generally the same purpose as the above described devices, but made from recycled or recyclable materials. The present invention addresses this demand.